Vortex Strings Research Articles

Vortex states in layered mesoscopic superconductors

Within the Ginzburg-Landau theory, we study the vortex structures in three-dimensional anisotropic mesoscopic superconductors in the presence of a uniform magnetic field. Anisotropy is included through varied ${T}_{c}$ in different layers of the sample and leads to distinct differences in the vortex states and their free energy. Several unconventional states are found, some comprising vortex clusters or exhibiting asymmetry. In a tilted magnetic field, we found second-order transitions between different vortex states, although vortex entry is generally a first-order transition in mesoscopic samples. In multilayered samples the kinked vortex strings are formed owing to the competing interactions of vortices with Meissner currents and the weak-link boundaries. The length and deformation of vortex fragments are determined solely by the inclination and strength of applied magnetic field, and this lock-in does not depend on the degree of anisotropy between the superconducting layers.

Vortex Pinning and Dynamics in HTS films: Role of Extended Linear Defects

ABSTRACTThe model of single vortex escape from extended linear defect and subsequent vortex dynamics under the Lorentz force action in a rather thick (d > 2λ) 3D anisotropic superconductor is developed. We consider the case of parallel c-oriented linear defects as well as the case of equidistant linear row of such kind of defects, which represents the dislocation model of low-angle [001] tilt grain boundary in HTS films and bicrystals. The suggested model based on the classical mechanics approach allows to describe behavior of an elastic vortex string in the potential well of linear defect and under the action of Lorentz force on its end within the Meissner current carrying layer and to determine the depinning critical current density at low magnetic fields and temperatures.

Localizing gauge fields on a topological Abelian string and the Coulomb law

The confinement of electromagnetic field is studied in axial symmetrical, warped, 6D World Brane, using a recently proposed topological abelian string vortex solution as background. It was found, that the massless gauge field fluctuations follow 4D Maxwell equations in the Lorenz gauge. The massless zero mode is localized when the thickness of the string-vortex is less than 5% $\beta/4\pi e^{2}$ there are not others localized massless modes. There is also an infinite of non localized massive Fourier modes, that follow 4 dimensional Proca equations with a continuous spectrum. To compute the corrections to the Coulomb potential, a radial cutoff was introduced, in order to achieve a discrete mass spectrum. As main result, a $\frac{1}{R^{2}}$ correction was found for the 4D effective Coulomb law. Although, this correction is milder than the $% \frac{1}{R^{3}}$ expected for flat 5+1 dimensional electromagnetism, the result is in correspondence with the observed behavior of the Coulomb potential at nowadays measurable distances.

Localized gravity on topological Abelian Higgs strings

In this work there are proposed several new 6D brane worlds based on exact topological solutions to the vortex equations for the Abelian Higgs model, with suitable boundary conditions and symmetry breaking potentials similar to the mexican hat. Just as happens for RS domain wall brane worlds, it is shown that the massless mode of linearized gravity is localized in the neighborhood of the string–vortex solution while there are not massive bounded states. The correction to the newtonian limit of the effective 4D gravity is calculated.

String dynamics, spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry, and dual scalar field theory

The dynamics of a vortex string, which describes the Nambu-Goldstone modes of the spontaneous breakdown of the target space $D=4$, $N=1$ supersymmetry and internal $U(1{)}_{R}$ symmetry to the world sheet $\mathrm{ISO}(1,1)$ symmetry, is constructed by using the approach of nonlinear realization. The resulting action describing the low energy oscillations of the string into the covolume (super)space is found to have an invariant synthesis form of the Akulov-Volkov and Nambu-Goto actions. Its dual scalar field action is obtained by means of introducing two vectorial Lagrangian multipliers into the action of the string.

Dynamics of strings between walls

Configurations of vortex strings stretched between or ending on domain walls were previously found to be $1/4$ Bogomol'nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield (BPS) states in $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric gauge theories in $3+1$ dimensions. Among zero modes of string positions, the center of mass of strings in each region between two adjacent domain walls is shown to be non-normalizable whereas the rests are normalizable. We study dynamics of vortex strings stretched between separated domain walls by using two methods, the moduli space (geodesic) approximation of full $1/4$ BPS states and the charged particle approximation for string end points in the wall effective action. In the first method we explicitly obtain the effective Lagrangian in the strong coupling limit, which is written in terms of hypergeometric functions, and find the 90\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} scattering for head-on collision. In the second method the domain wall effective action is assumed to be $U(1{)}^{N}$ gauge theory, and we find a good agreement between two methods for well-separated strings.

Potential Vorticity Diagnosis of the Severe Convective Regime. Part II: The Impact of Idealized PV Anomalies

Abstract Idealized numerical experiments are conducted to understand the effect of upper-tropospheric potential vorticity (PV) anomalies on an environment conducive to severe weather. Anomalies are specified as a single isolated vortex, a string of vortices analogous to a negatively tilted trough, and a pair of string vortices analogous to a position error in a negatively tilted trough. The anomalies are placed adjacent to the tropopause along a strong upper-level jet at a time just prior to a major tornado outbreak and inverted using the nonlinear balance equations. In addition to the expected destabilization beneath and adjacent to a cyclonic PV anomaly, the spatial pattern of the inverted balanced streamfunction and height fields is distorted by the presence of the horizontal PV gradient along the upper-tropospheric jet stream. Streamfunction anomalies are elongated in the cross-jet direction, while height and temperature anomalies are elongated in the along-jet direction. The amplitude of the inverted fields, as well as the changes in CAPE associated with the inverted temperature perturbations, are linearly proportional to the amplitudes of the PV anomalies themselves, and the responses to complex PV perturbation structures are approximated by the sum of the responses to individual simple PV anomalies. This is true for the range of PV amplitudes tested, which was designed to mimic typical 6-h forecast or analysis errors and produced changes in CAPE beneath the trough of well over 100 J kg−1. Impacts on inverted fields are largest when the PV anomaly is on the anticyclonic shear side of the jet, where background PV is small, compared with the cyclonic shear side of the jet, where background PV is large.

QCD String as Vortex String in Seiberg-Dual Theory

QCD String as Vortex String in Seiberg-Dual Theory

QCD string as vortex string in Seiberg-dual theory

We construct a classical vortex string solution in a Seiberg-dual theory of = 1 supersymmetric SO(Nc) QCD which flows to a confining phase. We claim that this vortex string is a QCD string, as previouly argued by M. Strassler. In SO(Nc) QCD, it is known that stable QCD strings exist even in the presence of dynamical quarks. We show that our vortex strings are stable in the Seiberg-dual theory.

The quantum dynamics of heterotic vortex strings

We study the quantum dynamics of vortex strings in = 1 SQCD with U(Nc) gauge group and Nf = Nc quarks. The classical worldsheet of the string has = (0, 2) supersymmetry, but this is broken by quantum effects. We show how the pattern of supersymmetry breaking and restoration on the worldsheet captures the quantum dynamics of the underlying 4d theory. We also find qualitative matching of the meson spectrum in 4d and the spectrum on the worldsheet.

Vortex deformation and breaking in superconductors: a microscopic description

Vortex breaking has traditionally been studied for non-uniform critical current densities, although it may also appear due to non-uniform pinning force distributions. In this article we study the case of a high-pinning/low-pinning/high-pinning layered structure. We have developed an elastic model for describing the deformation of a vortex in these systems in the presence of a uniform transport current density J for any arbitrary orientation of the transport current and the magnetic field. If J is above a certain critical value, Jc , the vortex breaks and a finite effective resistance appears. Our model can be applied to some experimental configurations where vortex breaking naturally exists. This is the case for YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO) low-angle grain boundaries and films on vicinal substrates, where the breaking is experienced by Abrikosov–Josephson vortices (AJV) and Josephson string vortices (SV), respectively. With our model, we have experimentally extracted some intrinsic parameters of the AJV and SV, such as the line tension ϵ l and compared it to existing predictions based on the vortex structure.

Heterotic vortex strings

We determine the low-energy N=(0,2) worldsheet dynamics of vortex strings in a large class of non-Abelian N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories.

Solitons in supersymmety breaking meta-stable vacua

In recently found supersymmetry-breaking meta-stable vacua of the supersymmetric QCD, we examine possible exsitence of solitons. Homotopy groups of the moduli space of the meta-stable vacua show that there is no nontrivial soliton for SU(Nc) gauge group. When U(1)B symmetry present in the theory is gauged, we find non-BPS solitonic (vortex) strings whose existence and properties are predicted from brane configurations. We obtain explicit classical solutions which reproduce the predicitions. For SO(Nc) gauge group, we find there are solitonic strings for N≡Nf−Nc+4 = 2, and Z2 strings for the other N. The strings are meta-stable as they live in the meta-stable vacua.

Superconformal vortex strings

We study the low-energy dynamics of semi-classical vortex strings living above Argyres-Douglas superconformal field theories. The worldsheet theory of the string is shown to be a deformation of the CP^N model which flows in the infra-red to a superconformal minimal model. The scaling dimensions of chiral primary operators are determined and the dimensions of the associated relevant perturbations on the worldsheet and in the four dimensional bulk are found to agree. The vortex string thereby provides a map between the A-series of N=2 superconformal theories in two and four dimensions.

Phase structure of helico-conical optical beams

We examine the phase structures of Helico-Conical (HC) Optical Beams produced via computer-generated holograms (CGH). The CGHs of these beams are made such that the reconstruction will have a phase which is a product of a helical and a conical phase. Interference-based phase measurement technique reveals very distinct differences between the phases of the two types of HC Beams (K=0 and K=1). Most obvious is the presence of screw dislocations at the center of the beam for K=1 while no screw dislocations are found at the center for K=0. We also compare the experimental interference patterns with numerical interference patterns calculated by superimposing a field containing vortices at different positions and a plane wave. A remarkable similarity is seen between the interferograms, which is a good indication of the phase of these beams. Contour plots are drawn to show the phases of these beams. We observe a string of vortices with equal charge in contrast to the assumption that a string of alternating charges should be seen.

On Monopoles and Domain Walls

The purpose of this paper is to describe a relationship between maximally supersymmetric domain walls and magnetic monopoles. We show that the moduli space of domain walls in non-abelian gauge theories with N flavors is isomorphic to a complex, middle dimensional, submanifold of the moduli space of U(N) magnetic monopoles. This submanifold is defined by the fixed point set of a circle action rotating the monopoles in the plane. To derive this result we present a D-brane construction of domain walls, yielding a description of their dynamics in terms of truncated Nahm equations. The physical explanation for the relationship lies in the fact that domain walls, in the guise of kinks on a vortex string, correspond to magnetic monopoles confined by the Meissner effect.

Mechanics of vortex escape from extended linear defect in 3D-anisotropic superconductor

The problem of vortex depinning from extended linear defect in 3D -anisotropic superconductor under the Lorentz force influence is considered for the case T =0. We treat it as a problem of classical mechanics behavior of an elastic vortex string which is settled in a potential well of linear defect and exerted to the Lorentz force action on its end within the screening layer of width λ (λ - is the London penetration depth) near the specimen surface. We search the stability problem and obtain conditions for the instability threshold, as well as the critical current density jc, at which the instability leading to vortex depinning first emerges near the surface and then propagates inside the superconductor. This scenario of vortex depinning mechanism at low temperatures is strongly supported by some recent experiments.

Quantum global vortex strings in a background field

We consider quantum global vortex string correlation functions, within the Kalb-Ramond framework, in the presence of a background field-strength tensor and investigate the conditions under which this yields a nontrivial contribution to those correlation functions. We show that a background field must be supplemented to the Kalb-Ramond theory, in order to correctly describe the quantum properties of the vortex strings. The explicit form of this background field and the associated quantum vortex string correlation function are derived. The complete expression for the quantum vortex creation operator is explicitly obtained. We discuss the potential applicability of our results in the physics of superfluids and rotating Bose-Einstein condensates.

Computational study on the internal layer in a diffuser

We report an internal layer found in the turbulent flow through an asymmetric planar diffuser using large-eddy simulation; we discuss five issues relevant to the internal layer: definition and identification, conditions for occurrence, connection with its outer flow, similarity with other equilibrium flows, and growth. The present internal layer exists in a region with stabilized positive skin friction downstream of a sharp reduction. The streamwise pressure gradient changes suddenly from slightly favourable to strongly adverse at the diffuser throat, and relaxes in a prolonged mildly adverse region corresponding to the skin friction plateau. Development of the internal layer into the outer region is slow, in contrast to the internal layers previously identified from certain external boundary-layer flows where the sudden change in streamwise pressure gradient is from strongly adverse to mildly favourable. Signatures of the internal layer include an inflectional point in the wall-normal profiles of streamwise turbulence intensity, and a well-defined logarithmic slope in the mean streamwise velocity underneath a linear distribution extending to the core region of the diffuser. Some of these characteristics bear a certain resemblance to those existing in the C-type of Couette–Poiseuille turbulent flows. Frequency spectrum results indicate that application of strong adverse pressure gradient at the diffuser throat enhances the low-frequency content of streamwise turbulent fluctuations. Inside the internal layer, the frequency energy spectra at different streamwise locations, but with the same wall-normal coordinate, nearly collapse. Two-point correlations with streamwise, wall-normal and temporal separations were used to examine connections between fluctuations inside the internal layer and those in the core region of the diffuser where the mean streamwise velocity varies linearly with distance from the wall. Galilean decomposition of instantaneous velocity vectors reveals a string of well-defined spanwise vortices outside the internal layer. The internal layer discovered from this study provides qualified support for a conjecture advanced by Azad & Kassab some years ago (Phys. Fluids A, vol. 1, 1989, p. 564).

Reconnection of colliding cosmic strings

For vortex strings in the Abelian Higgs model and D-strings in superstring theory, both of which can be regarded as cosmic strings, we give analytical study of reconnection (recombination, inter-commutation) when they collide, by using effective field theories on the strings. First, for the vortex strings, via a string sigma model, we verify analytically that the reconnection is classically inevitable for small collision velocity and small relative angle. Evolution of the shape of the reconnected strings provides an upper bound on the collision velocity in order for the reconnection to occur. These analytical results are in agreement with previous numerical results. On the other hand, reconnection of the D-strings is not classical but probabilistic. We show that a quantum calculation of the reconnection probability using a D-string action reproduces the nonperturbative nature of the worldsheet results by Jackson, Jones and Polchinski. The difference on the reconnection -- classically inevitable for the vortex strings while quantum mechanical for the D-strings -- is suggested to originate from the difference between the effective field theories on the strings.